“Blood Feud” by Edward Klein – Eternal Rivals

There are two sides, at the very least, to the world of politics. First, there is the one made to be presented to the public, sanitized and crafted to perfection... and then there is the other side, the one where decisions are made, the one where things get seedy and dirty.

There are countless stories boiling behind the scenes of politics, far too many for us to ever know about them all. In Blood Feud, Edward Klein delves into perhaps what is one of the more interesting behind-the-scenes stories, that of the rivalry between the Obamas and the Clintons.

Basically the whole book is treated from a journalist's perspective, with Edward Klein being a very experienced one who knows his way about. Most notably, he has access to a sizable number of old contacts, many of whom were capable of shedding unprecedented clarity into the relationship those two families had with each other.

In other words, we are often taken behind closed doors, where we are given a surprising amount of detail into various meetings that transpired between the two. By the end of it, the reader feels like a fly on the wall who assisted to every moment of the rivalry between the two couples, knowing in great depth the kind of animosity and jealousy ran beneath the surface between perhaps the most famous political couples of the modern day.

Frankly-speaking I never took that great of an interest in the relations upheld between different political camps, but as it turns out, that world can be also be an interesting one, given the chance.

Though at first one can look at it as a simple documentation of behind-the-scenes workings, there are inevitably larger questions which come to arise from the numerous facts we come to learn.

In my opinion, one of the main lessons the reader can draw from this book is the fact that, in the end, politicians ( an overwhelming majority of them at the very least) truly care about none but themselves, and no matter what they may claim in public, they have no allegiance and have no interests to preserve but their own, and that of their wealthy friends.

All in all, if you are interested in the workings of politics, the history they have in this country, and are seeking to better understand the Obama and Clinton administrations and how they were intertwined, then Blood Feud is certainly worth reading, especially considering it is very solid from a technical perspective, flowing smoothly and being very easy to follow and understand.

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Edward Klein Personal site Edward Klein is an American author who is known for having written in-depth literature on the Kennedys, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama most recently. He holds an MS degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism, and his more famous books include The Kennedy Curse and The Amateur.